You can travel almost anywhere in Europe by train. Hop on a Eurostar to Paris or Brussels, then a high-speed train to Nice or Geneva, or an overnight sleeper to Barcelona, Venice, Rome or Berlin arriving in time for breakfast. Free from the stresses of flying, you might find journeys an experience to enjoy rather than endure.

It must be every non-flier's nightmare. An invitation arrives to a friend's wedding in Greece. Do you decline? Or do you endure a flight for the sake of your friend? Neither. You book your Eurostar to Paris (from £59 return) and sleeper to Italy (£48 each way) online with French Railways. You book a train from Bologna to Bari (£31 each way) online with Italian Railways and a ferry from Bari to Greece at superfast.com (from £36 each way, cabins extra). This is no armchair theory. That invitation arrived for me and my wife.

Our holiday started at Waterloo. A lunchtime train delivered us to Paris, and after a few glasses of red in the Latin Quarter, we climbed aboard the sleeper to Italy. Nothing beats dinner in the restaurant car as the sun sets over French villages nestled in leafy valleys, before retiring to a couchette and waking up in another country. After breakfast in Bologna, we trained it to Bari along the Adriatic coast, and wandered round Bari's pleasant old town before boarding the overnight cruise ferry to Patras.

I can't think of a better way to reach Greece than sailing across blue waters under even bluer skies, past the islands of Ithaca and Kefalonia, stepping ashore rested and relaxed less than 48 hours from Waterloo. A short train ride later, we were in Athens.

After the wedding, the Friendship Express took us overnight from Thessaloniki to Istanbul, £33 each including sleeper - another hotel bill saved. The train enters Istanbul through the medieval Walls of Theodosius, passes beneath the Topkapi palace and arrives, to a squeal of brakes, at Istanbul's Sirkeci station, at the very edge of Europe.

After several wonderful days in Istanbul, we headed east. Every Thursday at 8.55am, the Toros Express leaves Haydarpasa station on the Bosphorus' Asian shore, bound for Aleppo in Syria. Its sleeping car is comfortable, if not luxurious and a bargain at £29pp. The train crosses Turkey, winding around mountains and deep valleys, crusader fortresses glimpsed on distant hilltops.

Next morning, the sleeper descends the Taurus mountains into the plain separating Turkey from Syria. After the border, the train heads for Aleppo at a reckless 30mph, arriving (on a good day) in time for dinner. Aleppo is a wonderful city of mosques and souks. At the famous Baron's Hotel, opened in 1911 and little changed since, you can sleep where Roosevelt, Agatha Christie and TE Lawrence stayed, for $55 a night. When you're ready to move on, air-conditioned trains take 4½ hours to Damascus for $3, first class.

At Damascus Kadem station, I slowly realised that the narrow gauge freight train standing one track away from the platform was indeed the twice-weekly train to Amman in Jordan. This was the Hedjaz Railway, the line attacked by Lawrence of Arabia in 1917. Up front was a solitary passenger coach, built in Nuremberg in 1905. I clung to the railings on the open veranda at the front of the coach behind the locomotive. This day-long ride costs $4, no reservation needed. Passenger trains no longer run beyond Amman, so you need a bus or taxi. The next day, we reached our final destination, Petra.

The moral is, if you'd rather not take a plane, you don't have to. It's amazing what you can do, comfortably and affordably, by train. This round trip took three weeks. Just remember: never travel without a good book and a corkscrew.